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Hello, I am Karanja Tree
My botanical name is Pongamia pinnata.
It has an interesting origin: It combines a local Indian name with a Latin botanical description.
The word Pongamia is derived from the Tamil name 'Pongam' (பொங்கம்) or 'Pungam', which is a traditional name for this tree in Tamil Nadu. The root Tamil word for this is 'pongu' which means to swell, overflow, rise or metaphorically - abundance. Can you recollect the name of a harvest festival from the same root word?
The term pinnata comes from Latin 'pinnatus' meaning feathered or winged. In botany, pinnate refers to a compound leaf with leaflets arranged on either side of a central stalk (like a feather’s vane).
The word ‘karanja’ comes from Sanskrit and is made of the root words ‘kara’ (meaning ‘hand’) and ‘añja’ (meaning to anoint or apply), hinting at its use for oils and ointments.
I am a species of tree in the pea, legume or beans family called Fabaceae. I am native to eastern and tropical Asia, Australia, and the Pacific islands. My common names include Indian beech, Karanja, and Pongame oiltree
My Story
I grow to about 15–25 m (50–80 ft) in height with a large canopy which spreads equally wide and creates dense shade.
My wood is white colored, while my bark is smooth and grey-brown. My leaves are soft, shiny burgundy when young and mature to a glossy, deep green as the season progresses, with prominent veins underneath.
My flowering generally starts after 3–4 years of age with small clusters of white, purple, and pink flowers blossoming. My brown seed pods appear immediately after flowering, and mature in 10 to 11 months. The pods are thick-walled, smooth, and somewhat flattened. The pods contain within them one or two bean-like brownish-red seeds, but because they do not split open naturally, the pods need to decompose before the seeds can germinate.
I am naturally distributed in tropical and temperate Asia, from India to Japan to Thailand to northeastern Australia to some Pacific islands.
I am well suited to intense heat and sunlight, can tolerate salinity and my dense network of lateral roots and its thick, long taproot make it drought tolerant.
I am often used for landscaping as a windbreak or for shade due to the large canopy and showy, fragrant flowers. The flowers are used by gardeners as compost for plants. The bark may be used to make twine or rope. It also yields a black gum that is used in traditional medicine for application to ulcers, boils, and wounds to aid healing. The gum was also used seal cracks and joints - much like an earlier day M-Seal! My wood is beautifully grained, but splits easily when sawn, thus relegating it to firewood, posts, and tool handles. The tree's deep taproot and drought tolerance makes this tree ideal for controlling soil erosion and binding sand dunes.
Oil made from my seeds, known as karanja oil or pongamia oil, has been used as lamp oil, in soapmaking, as natural insect repellent and as a lubricant. Its disagreeable taste and odor are due to bitter flavonoid constituents, including karanjin, pongamol, tannin, and karanjachromene. These compounds induce nausea and vomiting if ingested in its natural form. The fruits, sprouts and seeds are used in traditional medicine.
The seed oil, being non-edible, has been found to be useful in diesel generators, and along with Jatropha and castor, it was explored in hundreds of projects throughout India as input for biodiesel. Hence, as biofuel I am commercially valuable to the rural populations in India, where the plant grows abundantly, because it can support the socioeconomic development of these areas.
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